


Cupid Business

by ee3



Series: Business Partners [1]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Angst, Bi Jadzia Dax, Compulsory Heterosexuality, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fake Enemies, Gay Odo, Gay Quark, Homewrecker Jadzia, Jealousy, Lesbian Kira Nerys, M/M, Pining, Slow Burn, Trans Julian Bashir, and i love him with jadzia too much to hurt his feelings, i think it counts anyways, i tried to format this like a real episode, it's about the yearning, worf hasn't come to ds9 because kiradax reasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:41:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26210575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ee3/pseuds/ee3
Summary: Quark has been in love with Odo for over ten years. Jadzia Dax is very fond of Major Kira herself. The only problem is the objects of their affection are with each other instead, and they don't seem very fulfilled by it.Quark and Dax come up with a plan to fix this for everyone.
Relationships: Jadzia Dax/Kira Nerys, Odo/Quark (Star Trek)
Series: Business Partners [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958356
Comments: 34
Kudos: 94





	1. A Business Proposition

"What do you see in her, Odo?" Quark must have been thinking too loudly, because Jadzia heard him from across the bar.

"Major Kira is a beautiful woman. It's hard not to fall in love with her." There was weight behind her words. Jadzia smiled knowingly at him before she downed the last of her synthehol. "Is something troubling you?"

Quark seemed to jump out of his trance. "No! Nothing. They're just... So... Annoying. All they do is stare at each other. And between Odo not eating and the Major's bajoran fasting, or whatever it is, they don't buy anything!" He hissed, wiping down the counter top with a dish rag.

"If I didn't know better--" There was a hint of mischief in her voice, as always. Like she did know better; like she knew more than he did. "--I would say you were jealous, Quark." 

"Jealous? You make me laugh." Quark spoke in a higher pitch to show what a proposterous idea that was. "Don't get me wrong, she's fine. Fine. Sure. But I hardly want to go to dinner with her."

Jadzia rolled her eyes, still smiling at him. "Not jealous of Odo, silly. Of Kira. She's spending a lot of time with him." 

"That makes even less sense! If it was me over there, I'd be arrested." 

Jadzia looked straight through him. She was always too wise for her own good, being 300 something years old does that to you.  
"You've known him for over ten years. Maybe you should tell him." 

Quark stared at his reflection in the polished bar. "...You think I'm in love with him, huh."

"Aren't you?" 

He touched one of his lobes absentmindedly at that. "I hate him. I've hated him ever since I first met him and it's been over a decade. And every day he stops by the bar, or harrasses me, or... Saves my life." His voice fluttered and he smiled, just a little. That has happened far too many times. "Every time, I hate him that much more. I can't stand it." 

"Certainly sounds like you're in love to me." There was a certain fondness in her words. She had a very similar conversation before, with Pel, the ferengi woman who posed as a man. Before Jadzia knew Pel was a woman, she knew she was in love with Quark. And she had reason to believe Quark felt the same way. "You'd be surprised how much you could change, if you just told him how you feel-" 

Quark tried to shout and whisper at once.  
"Keep it down! I couldn't say anything if I wanted to. You federation types are so relaxed in your values. Back on ferenginar, you find a nice, quiet fe-male, and you're done with it."

Jadzia frowned. "I've fallen in love probably a hundred times, with men and women. If it's any consolation... It took me a long time to come to terms with it, too." She paused for a long while. Her voice turned soft. "And it's even worse when they're with someone else, yet you know you would make them so much happier."

Quark knew that. If she didn't understand, he wouldn't have admitted to anything, and she was nearly always right. He let out a heavy sigh. "So what am I supposed to do about it? I'm already an embarrassment. It's like a sick joke. At least the FCA already took everything for me. It's not like I have anything to lose anymore." 

"I can't tell what you should do, Quark. But I can tell you, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself." 

"Good. You don't have to tell me, because I just got an idea. But I'll need to ask you for a favor." He grins with jagged fangs. Nothing else cheered him up like a good scheme. "Think of it as a business arrangement. We'll both get what we want."

Oh no. Jadzia loved where this is going, and she was way ahead of him. It's awful. The Curzon in her couldn't wait.  
"I'll talk to them."

"If this works, I'll pay you." 

"That won't be necessary. We're friends."


	2. Missing Information

The automatic doors made a mechanical hiss as they opened to chief of security's office. Odo spun around in his chair to face his visitor, Jadzia Dax. Her mission was simple, she only needed to speak to him. But her goal was a little more devious than that: get Kira and Odo to split up. Her and Quark had an arrangement, see, and she intended to carry through with it. Unfortunately, the Constable was as vigilant as a tarkalean hawk, and if he suspected even a hint of ulterior motive, the whole operation would be at risk. She couldn't let that happen. Instead of something cruel, like lies or sabotage -- which Quark had recommended as their first option before Jadzia shot it down, she had to get them to call it off on their own.

"Good morning, Constable." 

"Morning, Commander. What can I do for you?"

Jadzia beamed at him. Her smile could always light up the whole station. "Actually, I was just wondering if you would have lunch with me at Quark's today." 

"Well..." Odo sets down his PADD on the control panel beside him. "Generally, I make my rounds about the station for a couple hours, and I'd get lunch with Major Kira... But seeing as she's stationed on Bajor at the moment, I don't see why not." 

"Great!" Even without the task at hand, Odo was her friend, and she did like to spend time with him. Even if that just meant buying some replicator food and talking for half an hour, while he was perfectly content without having to eat. Likewise, being included was a nice gesture that Odo always seemed to appreciate.  
"How are you and Nerys doing, anyways?" Jadzia loved to gossip, and everyone on the station knew that by now.

"Hmm. Fine, I suppose. Why?" 

"I was curious! You haven't been up to any daring escapades like in your steamy Bajoran novels you've been reading lately?" She teased, nodding towards the Padd he had been reading before she arrived. 

"I don't have escapades, much less steamy ones." Odo grunts, in an 'I wish I never told anyone about these' kind of way. "And I was reading the personnel files on some of the starfleet officers aboard the station. I have reason to believe they were tampered with." 

"Oh, really?" This was the first that Dax had heard of it herself. "Which officers have been affected?" 

"That's what I'm trying to determine now. The strangest part is they don't seem to have any correlation with each other. Half a dozen engineers, a nurse, a handful of security officers... And Doctor Bashir, for some reason." Odo picked up his Padd again, showing an article to Jadzia. It was Julian's. "It's completely blank before eight years ago." 

Jadzia scowls, trying to piece together anything that could be a clue. That was definitely out of the ordinary. Before she could find an answer, though, her combadge alerted her. 

"Sisko to Dax."

"Go ahead, captain."

"Report to ops. We need your help up here."

"Yes, sir." Jadzia turned to Odo on her way out. "Compile a list of the corrupted files and send them to me. We can discuss it over lunch. In the meantime, I would start by asking Julian if he knows anything about the missing information." 

... 

Over in the infirmary, Odo pulled up a compilation of the altered personnel files. "Take a look at this, doctor. These fourteen people have had entire years of their life removed from the databanks, and you're one of them." 

Julian selected his file and began to read over it. "That's odd. Entries prior to eight years ago are completely erased. Is there any residual data where they were deleted, or... Evidence suggesting who could have done this?" 

"I checked that this morning, and the answer is no." Odo sighed. "There are no traces of the lost information. These files weren't manually deleted, they simply ceased to exist, seemingly out of nowhere."

"Could it be a computer virus? Those have been known to corrupt data to a point where it's no longer accessible." 

"That would make sense, but the only affected files were starfleet officer's history logs. If it were a random attack, we would have missing files on just about anything." Odo scowled, looking it over again. "Tell me doctor, is there any significance to eight years ago in your life? Something that might warrant this?"

"Well... Possibly." Julian started to search for a Jules Bashir. Nothing came up. He appeared to be lost in thought and forgot.

"I recall seeing that name in some of the older starfleet records." Odo tried to soften his voice in an attempt to be empathetic after deducing that was the name of a deceased family member. "Who was she? Your sister?"

"Eight years ago was when I changed my name under starfleet... But that still shouldn't have done anything to the computer records." 

Odo still looked puzzled. "Apologies, Doctor. I was under the impression that Jules was a woman, I mean the records said--"

"Yes, they did." Julian smiles wryly, stifling a laugh. "And I was under the impression that you were the alpha quadrant's best detective, constable." 

A light indicator goes off in Odo's head, finally.   
"Ahh... That was you." He couldn't help but feel defeated for not realizing that sooner. He knew Julian's history with illegal genetic modifications, but this he had no idea.   
"...I wouldn't have guessed." 

"Federation technology is pretty incredible. I mean, I could have made myself look like a klingon if I wanted to." Julian had an amused air about him. 

Of course, Odo knew of different humanoid customs, but he usually didn't relate to them. "Changelings in our natural state don't have such concepts; we don't have sexual characteristics whatsoever. If the scientist who found me had been a woman, I'm sure I would have mimicked her much like I loosely copied Doctor Mora." 

"...So you're saying in a way, we have something in common." 

"I suppose. It's strange to think I so easily could have been an entirely different person."

"I don't think so. You could shape shift into a chair, or a glass, or a cardassian vole, but you'll always be Odo." 

"Hypothetically, if I had been assigned a woman scientist, I would have still learned to form a humanoid appearance. I could even be the chief of security here on deep space nine. But I wouldn't be who I am today."

"Why would that be?" Julian was genuinely curious for his answer. "Aside from your physical form, of course. It isn't like you're a ferengi." 

"Well..." Odo grumbled. "According to... Humanoid romance novels, which I read for entirely educational purposes --" 

"I'm sure." 

"I would have fallen in love with a man, and he would have told me that my strong sense of justice was radiant... That I was beautiful, and he would be charming..." Odo was in his own little world. "He would be a dashing scoundrel who secretly had a heart of gold, the kind that never listened to rules aside from his own. But I would be responsible, and keep him out of too much trouble."

"You sound like you've thought an awful lot about this." Julian had a gentle look in his dark eyes. "To be fair, constable, you could still do that in this universe. Hell, Garak and I have been going out to lunch for years, you know."

"Hrmm." Odo grunted. If Julian was a telepath, he would have heard something like "I'm not supposed to."


	3. Come to Quark's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kira returns to the station a little earlier than expected.

Meanwhile, at Quark's....

"Well! If it isn't my favorite bajoran militia officer. What have I possibly done to deserve the absolute gift of your presence today?" The ferengi feigned a surprised gasp. "Could it be a special occasion?" 

Kira shook her head, trying to dismiss his silly attitude. "Skip the theatrics, Quark. I just want the usual, please." 

"Anything for you, Major. One raktajino, coming right up." He spoke with an extra layer of false enthusiasm and flattery, on top of what he always had of course. Some of his patrons, or enemies, would describe him as a very charismatic person. Kira probably wouldn't, though. "Are you sure there isn't a reason that brings you here? Anything at all? You can tell me." 

"I just needed some caffeine to start the day. We've got some malfunctions on the station... As always. But these are new problems, and I have to be alert in case we're being attacked." She took a sip of her steaming hot raktajino.

"What about your, uh, boyfriend or whatever. Why isn't he here with you? Isn't it his job to degrade me every chance he gets?" Quark spoke as he poured her hot, black beverage out of his thermos into an Earth style coffee mug. It had the words 'Quark's bar' printed on it, and an image of his face.

Kira took the drink from him, blowing gently at the clouds of steam rising up from it. "Odo's a busy man. Do you really want him breathing down your neck at all hours of the day?" 

Quark shuddered at the thought when he imagined it in a literal sense. The constable breathing on his neck doesn't sound too bad to him in the least. It was just like him to make something meaningless into an inappropriate joke. "Of course not." Of course yes. "I mean, who would? He's overbearing, cruel, hostile... I'm telling you major, it's a miracle he hasn't scared away all my business."

Kira sipped at her raktajino. "Well, yeah, I can't argue with that-" 

"Honestly, if you ask me, you should get it over with and reject him already," Quark hissed, staring at his reflection in the drinking glass he was polishing. "He's horrible. You deserve better, someone who cares about you... Someone who could be your best friend," he trailed off and spoke in a shrill mutter, "someone who comes with a free pet worm-" 

This was just another one of his schemes, of course. Like when he talked the grand nagus into leaving his mother, and then talked them back into working together again. It wasn't like he thought she wasn't good enough for Odo, he did hold a deal of respect for her, he saw her as a strong person and ultimately a kind soul. But, may the divine treasury help him, he couldn't stand to see the chief of security, his nemesis, fawning over someone else who had already broken his heart in the past. He wanted Odo to look at him the way he looked at Kira, with fondness rather than mocking resentment. He felt good about his jealousy, his greed. It made him feel like a real Ferengi. It made his definitely cruel, dried up heart pound in his chest. Surely there wasn't another cause for that symptom, and he must be every bit as devious as he thinks he is. 

"Quark." 

"All I'm saying is you have three thousand people on the station to choose from, and you pick Odo?" 

"Quark, I didn't drop by for unwarranted relationship advice. What was... What was that about worms? " 

He wasn't listening anymore. His concentration diverted to the door, staring intently as two figures made their way towards the bar. "Lieutenant Commander! And the Constable." He made it a point to welcome everyone with open arms, even his arch enemy. No, especially him, to annoy him. "How may I be of service?"

Kira spun around on her barstool. Sure enough, it was her good companion Jadzia Dax, and her partner, Odo. They both sat down at the stools beside her; Jadzia on her left, and Odo to the left of Jadzia. 

Odo watched the ferengi bartender with a smug, sunken smile and half lidded hollow eyes. "Hello, Quark." How he made a simple greeting sound like a threat was an impressive feat, but he'd mastered it. 

Quark held his lips in the same odd way he always did, almost pouting about something. In reality it was because his teeth were sharpened every morning and they stuck out just a tad too far. Odo of course had to notice these details, as an investigator. Something as simple as a glint in the little criminal's eyes could be indication of another one of his illegal activities. Unfortunately for Odo, he always had a suspicious shine about him, like a stolen slip of latinum, and he was always committing atrocities. 

"Before you get arrested, could I get some snail juice, hold the shells? And hasperat, please." Jadzia shook her head in amusement at the two men beside her. She turned to Kira instead. "I didn't expect to see you here today! I was told you wouldn't be back on the station for another thirty-six hours. What happened to your conference on Bajor?" 

Kira smiled a little, that the Lieutenant anticipated her return down to the hour. "Oh, I wasn't going to be, but when the Captain told me there was some kind of ongoing sabotage, I figured I'd better make it back early." She let her gaze fall down from Jadzia's spotted face to her half empty cup of coffee. "Chief O'brien debriefed me on the missing files before I got here." 

"For the record, I didn't do it," Quark chimed in. "-Whatever it was." 

"You weren't on my list of subjects, until now." Odo grumbled.

Kira heard them continue their routine bickering in the background. She tuned it out to speak with Jadzia. "In any case, I'm here now."

Jadzia pushed Kira's shoulder lightly, endearingly. No doubt an affectionate Klingon mannerism she picked up on. "A pleasant surprise." 

Quark set down a tall glass of ice cold, liquified snails in front of Jadzia. He kept his undivided attention on the shapeshifter. 

Kira cleared her throat, looking away from Jadzia. The contact with her gentle hands made Kira feel warm. Even still, she didn't know what to say. She didn't understand small talk, or most recreational activities; she hated the holosuites. This was one thing she did have in common with Odo. Before being stationed to Deep Space Nine, she was in the Bajoran resistance, and never had time for fun and games then either. Jadzia was the opposite in that sense. She, on the other hand, could make any situation more enjoyable, and light up an entire solar system with her contagious smile. Maybe that was what she liked about this woman, she allowed her to loosen up, to balance out her intensity with her comparatively laid-back charm. 

"So," Kira started back up, "Did you get the run down on the situation as well? The computers."

Jadzia nodded. "I was in ops this morning when we learned most of it. We're running a full scan of the station's databanks, but that's going to take eight hours. There's nothing we can do about it in the meantime." 

Kira sighed. "So I was called away from my post for no reason, huh." 

"Aww, I wouldn't say that, Nerys." Jadzia didn't notice her hasperat getting cold. She took a huge bite of her spicy Bajoran lunch. "Pluth," She started to speak with her mouth full until she realized that wasn't very starfleet of her, "Plus, now you have the whole day to yourself! We could take a walk around the station, or... I know! Quark and I were planning a game of tongo tonight. You should join us! It'd be fun." 

"Uh, I don't know, I've never played tongo before..." 

Jadzia nudges Odo who sat beside her. "What about you, Odo? You should both play." 

Odo grunts. He was in the middle of arguing with Quark, and hadn't really been listening. It took him a second to recall what was just said to him. "What? Tongo? I don't gamble. There's a reason it's illegal on certain planets." 

Quark smacked both of his hands on the counter, leaning towards him. "You two could both benefit from some leisure. It's the next best thing to a night in my holosuites, which we all know you're too uptight to enjoy. It's better with more players." He whined. 

Odo started to object, Jadzia chimed in. "Besides. You could beat Quark at his own game." She took a long, loud slurp of her slimy yellow juice. "Just an idea."

He contemplated for a second, then asked, "When are you playing?" 

A sly grin worked its way onto Quark's face. "Twenty-two hundred hours, when the bar closes. I can't wait." 

The three of them turned to Kira, awaiting her response.

"What?" 

"Well? Are you coming?" Quark rubs his hands together. "I'll teach you the rules myself. I play against Jadzia all the time." 

"And lose," Jadzia added. Quark chose not to react to that. 

"I guess since everyone else is going... Sure, why not."


	4. It takes four to tongo

"The goal of the game is simple. You're trying to acquire as much wealth as possible." Quark spun the tongo wheel once as he explained. 

"Every turn, you're given a number of choices; Confront your opponents, evade, retreat, and most importantly. Acquire. If the roll on your dice matches your cards, then you win! Oh, and one more thing. You don't want anyone to guess what cards you have. It'll give them an unfair advantage." 

Odo had a focused expression on his featureless face. "Hmm." 

"So what you do! Is you have to calculate the most profitable decision with every action. The circular cards have financial percentages, and the square cards have properties -- You're going to love those, Odo, you can have people arrested for failure to pay their debts -- You want to keep ownership, but don't forget to sell when they're higher... Of course you have to divide among your separate businesses... Are you getting all this?" 

Kira was absolutely not getting all this. "That makes sense now." She was both sarcastic and exasperated. 

"It will, trust me." Jadzia assured her. "Let's just get started." 

Quark clasped his hands together. "Great." He shuffled the decks and began dealing out cards, four for each of them.  
"I hope you remembered to bring your latinum." He reached into his coat and dropped ten slips into the dish in the middle of the wheel. Jadzia and Kira did the same. Odo stared at him suspiciously, but complied none the less. 

Jadzia leaned over to Kira's ear. "Don't be intimidated just because he's played hundreds of times. I just let him win." 

Quark snorted at that. "Like hell you do." He sat back down in his seat, between Odo and Jadzia. 

Odo was the first to make his move. He played about a dozen games in the short amount of time that Curzon inhabited his mind, so he could at least remember some of the rules. "Acquire." He rattled the dice onto the wheel. They had four sides, shaped like triangles, and they came back with double ones. 

"Oh, that's too bad constable." Quark flashed his little fangs at him. "No money for you."

"Hrrmmph." 

"Confront," Jadzia directed at Quark. 

"Evade!" Quark had a higher number, so it worked this time. 

"Uh... Acquire." Kira played hesitantly. Since she was uncontested, she gained latinum for the turn. That finished the first turn, and they drew new cards. 

"Evade."   
"Acquire!"   
"Confront."   
"Retreat."   
"Acquire."   
"I'm confronting you, Quark."  
"Acquire!" 

Several turns went by like that. It didn't take long for it to become apparent that their strategies varied greatly: 

Quark, obviously, had the most Ferengi outlook on a Ferengi game about Ferengi values. His actions were driven by greed and lust. He made the riskier moves that had a higher potential reward. It seemed to be working in his favor.

Jadzia attempted to stay on her opponents' good sides, stockpiling her assets and building up resources. This would make her a much stronger force to reckon with in the late game. She found it humorous just to watch the cooperations and betrayal between her other friends. 

Kira played every turn aggressively, her decisions were highly calculated. This was crucial for such a numbers-heavy game. Being determined and ruthless certainly couldn't hurt, either. Her biggest flaw was she had what her human associates would call an extremely poor "poker face". It was difficult for her to hide a smile when she had the upper hand.

Odo was nearly as intent on victory as Major Kira, however, he had somehow fundamentally missed the objective of the game. He wasn't even trying to obtain money after about turn two or so. His personal goal was to sabotage, confront, and counter Quark's every move. It reminded him of the game he played with him in their daily lives, and he loved every second of it.  
"You know, I believe I'm starting to like this game after all." 

It was proving difficult for Quark to make any moves that weren't defending himself against Odo. "Why's that?" He whined. 

Odo failed to contain a low chuckle. "Because." He laid down one of the square cards, the ones with Ferengi writing on them. It said "Go To Jail." 

Quark screeched in frustrated defeat. He took a very deep inhale. "Have I ever told you that you were put in this universe to make my life an excruciating nightmare?" 

"Only for the past ten years." Odo batted his eyes at him in the most patronizing way he could manage.

Quark refused to look at him. "I can't stand you." His face felt like it was on fire, and it turned a burnt shade of orange. Out of pure rage, probably. “...Retreat.”

While the boys were fighting, Jadzia waited for the opportune moment to strike. "Acquire." She gained a large profit that round. Neither of them noticed, but Kira did. 

"Hmmph! Giving up that easily, are we?" Odo turned his nose up, staring down at him. He wasn't focusing on the game in the least anymore, he just wanted to get under the little criminal's skin.

On Kira's turn, she played her entire hand onto the Tongo wheel. "Uhh... Total monopoly? Is that right?"

Jadzia dropped her cards. "No way. You're positive you never played before?" 

"Was that good?" Kira cringed, worrying she just made a mistake. The rules were so convoluted, she only understood about half of them.

Jadzia was completely thrilled. "Was it good? Kira, you just won! Quark, did you see that?" 

Quark was currently trying to free himself from Odo's grasp on his wrists. He must have insulted him. "That wasn't fair and you know it- OW-" Odo definitely didn't hurt him, he just wanted to complain.

"Odo! Quark!"Jadzia had to grab them and literally pry them apart. "Kira just took all your latinum."

Odo and Quark were equally bewildered.   
"WHAT?" Quark gaped. "That's not possible."  
Odo scoffed. "Unbelievable." 

Kira felt herself being overwhelmed with pride all of a sudden. "You said it was a good thing if my cards all matched, so I mean-" 

Jadzia immediately took her into her arms, giving her a tight hug for only a second. "That was a great game! I saw what you were doing, and there was no way I could stop it." 

"I wouldn't have gotten away with any of it if they weren't at each other's throats the whole time!"

"I-I want a rematch!" Quark stammered. "I was being distracted, this game wasn't fair!" 

Odo grunted. "He wouldn't leave me alone." 

"I wouldn't leave YOU alone? You--" 

Kira laughed triumphantly, beaming with joy. "You know what? I think I like this game too."


	5. Secret Admirer

Stardate 46386.4. The next day.

Down in ops, Chief O'Brien worked at a control panel, accessing the computer's databanks. Odo stood beside him for assistance.

"We've got a problem, sir. After we recalibrated the mainframe last night, whatever was affecting the files continued to spread throughout the entire station. There's barely anything left."

"Some kind of cascade virus?" Odo pondered.

"Looks like it. On the bright side, starfleet saves automatic backups of everything, but downloading them again would take quite some time. It managed to replicate the errors even while the systems were offline, almost like a cancerous cell dividing itself. It's remarkable technology." Miles cleared his throat.   
"Take a look at this." O'Brien pulled up Odo's personal file on the screen. All of the official records have been corrupted into unintelligible, glitched characters. The image of him at the top of the page had been altered too, somehow -- it had what appeared to be tiny hearts drawn over it. The Chief wheezed in laughter.

"Seems to me you've got a secret admirer, Constable. Whoever did this must really like you." 

"I gathered." Odo groaned. He panned down the page to discover dozens of cryptic messages. Some of them were written diagonally, vertically, even backwards; it looked more like a flowchart or a diagram than paragraphs of text. 

Certain sentences were clear due to context, while some were completely undecipherable. Letters and numbers were scrambled together or written upside down. Out of dozens of half-legible phases, Odo managed to put together a "HELLO my DEAREST Constable", written in reverse, "Anyone who can solve mystery this would be you", "Oh NOOOOoo don't ARREST ME" and, most alarming to him,

"I love you, Odo." 

Odo's sunken in eyes widened and he scoffed, quickly looking away from the screen, as if he was worried it could see his reaction. The solidity of his face started to weaken, even though he didn't need to regenerate. Pieces of his face melted into drips of slime. He was flustered.

"The, hrmm- Entity - that designed this program had a very alien lack of understanding of the English launguage. Usually that shouldn't matter, the universal translator does it for you. He - Or it - must have manually inserted every byte of information so the translator didn't pick up on it." Odo deduced, visibly cringing at some of the more embarrassing phrases that if he were lucky O'Brien wouldn't have been able to decipher.

Miles squinted at him, trying to figure out what Odo wasn't saying. He figured it must have been for a reason, and he didn't have a lot of knowledge on non-human languages. "Any idea what sort of life form we're dealing with?"

The Chief's suspicions were right. Odo had realized something else that he deliberately chose not to acknowledge. 

Someone had accidentally programmed broken English words formatted in exactly the same way as the Ferengi language. 

"No idea," He croaked. 

"If- If you're absolutely sure this is a dead end, we do have an anomaly on one of the upper pylons. It's causing interference in the sensors. The captain is sending Major Kira and Lieutenant Dax to check it out. Maybe that will give us a lead." 

Odo grunted in acknowledgement. Someone was playing a sick joke on him. This was clearly the work of his arch rival, who he despised so very much. 

Clearly, was being mocked. Quark was a criminal, a liar, a public nuisance - but compromising the entire station, just to get on his nerves? This was new; this was too far. And while he very strongly wanted to just be annoyed, he felt a sinking feeling, a yearning to hear those scrambled words in earnest rather than in pity or malice. Wanting that irritated him more than anything else. He was devoted to Kira, and he did love her very much. But she didn't make him ache with longing like this, not since she rejected him the first time, and Quark came up to his quarters, telling him - begging him to get over her. And Odo couldn't stand it.

Why would Quark do that? Just to agitate him? And why couldn't Odo hold himself together?

"...Ah- thank you, Chief. I have to go."


	6. Gathering Evidence

Upper Pylon 3. Jadzia and Kira were ordered to locate physical evidence of who, or what, damaged the processors. They both paced slowly down the halls, pointing their tricorders at every surface on the station.

Generally, this was Chief O'Brien's job, but with things breaking all over the station, he and his maintenance crew had their hands full making repairs. They weren't the only search team; dozens of other officers combed other areas. But it was a big station, and they didn't even know what they were looking for. 

Kira would hate this job under normal circumstances. Hours of nothing but repetitive tricorder beeping to alert her when it detected an anomaly that never showed up. But this time she was working with Jadzia Dax, her best friend, her Lieutenant Commander. Maybe it was that seven lifetimes of experiences made her witty, fun, wise, exciting. Kira wondered to herself how much of her loved the companionship of Jadzia, and how much was the Dax symbiont. She then concluded it didn't matter, and that Dax would say they were inseperable anyways, a single entity. Still, it would have been great to learn what she was like before then. 

Jadzia broke the silence. "Hey! I got something."

Kira jolted out of her daydream. "Really?" 

"...No, I'm just messing with you. We've been at it for hours." 

Kira groaned. "Who's idea was it to look for a computer virus, anyways? They're just- just code! They don't even exist."

Jadzia held up a finger and parted her lips, about to correct her.

"-- You know what I mean. We aren't gonna find anything." Kira threw down her arms defeatedly, when her tricorder made a tiny "blip!" sound. She looked down at the air duct at her feet. The grate was open. 

Jadzia knelt onto the floor and aimed her device into the tunnel. Sure enough, it blipped again. "Good work, Major." She started down the crawl space. "Come on." 

Kira followed close behind her. She quickly found this position compromising, and caught up with her, staying shoulder to shoulder. When she fumbled over her own tricorder, she knocked Jadzia down with her. The Lieutenant landed on her stomach, and Kira fell om yop of her. Kira instinctively gripped Jadzia's shoulders to keep herself from banging her head, and looked down at her, awestruck for a second.

"Sorry-" 

Jadzia didn't move, she just grinned down at the floor. She wasn't hurt, luckily.  
"Something tells me these conduits aren't built for two people at once." 

Kira started back to her knees so she could move off of her, then hesitated when she brushed against her. She realized that only made their closeness worse, their thighs making a little bit of contact.  
"...I guess they're not." 

Jadzia rolled onto her back, now facing Kira, and from this distance the Major could make out even the tiniest spots that run down her face and her neck, and she was every bit as stunning as the phaser she carried. In the same way, Jadzia studied Kira's features, her bright eyes, the ridges down her nose, her tiny smile that left dimples in the corners of her mouth.

The seconds that passed felt like centuries and the inches of distance between them felt like lightyears between unexplored stars. And when Jadzia pulled herself off of the floor, it was over so suddenly that they could both deny it had ever happened in the first place. 

Jadzia looked back at her once before picking up her tricorder. She scanned the wall beside them for anomalies, it beeped incessantly, and she opened the control panel. 

"It's detecting some kind of subspace distortion in the ion couplers... This is it, alright." 

...  
...  
...

Just like every other day, Quark tended to his bar, mixing drinks for patrons of every species imagineable, some who lived and worked on the space station and some who were just passing through on a cargo run; some who were conducting illegal trade deals in the shadows of the establishment in that very moment. 

He had just finished telling Morn a hilarious story, his most loyal and solemn customer, so he sat there in silence once again when the doors slid open. 

Quark didn't even have to look up at who it was, his sensitive ears could hear the distinct sound of his footsteps. It was Odo. 

"QUARK." 

On most days, it took the security officer 7.2 seconds to make his way from the door to the bar, sit down at the fifth barstool from the left, one away from where Morn always sat, and interrogate Quark about crimes he may or may not have committed. They've done this routine like clockwork - some days more, some days less, two to three times every single day. 

For the past decade.

Whether it was under the command of Gul Dukat on the Cardassian run Terok Nor, or Captain Sisko on Deep Space Nine, it didn't matter. Odo was still the order on the station, and Quark was the chaos he needed.

This time, however, it took him 3.9 seconds to pace up to him. This meant he was (usually correctly) accusing him of something. 

"What do you think you're doing?" 

"I'm making a black hole for one of my paying customers, if you couldn't tell. Do you want one?" 

"I'm not in the mood for your little games, Quark."

"So no Dabo either? Then you're going to have to leave-" He yelped when Odo grabbed his arm from across the counter. He attempted to resist, but he liked it when security - or maybe just Odo - was physical with him. You know. Because it validated how devious he was. Obviously.

"What's your plan with me?" Odo growled. 

Quark laughed nervously through his sharp teeth, already trying to figure out a way to change the subject to something else.  
"What plan?" 

"You're pretending you're in love with me." 

Quark's eyes widened and he tried, really, really hard to look as confused and offended as possible.  
"Why would I pretend to be in love with you?" 

There's multiple ways Odo could have taken that, and he didn't want to think about it. He scoffs.

"That's what I'd like to know." 

"Kira doesn't love you-you said it yourself!" 

Odo released him and leaned futher over the edge of the bar. He didn't argue with Quark, he didn't even deny that. But that wasn't the problem.

"No, that's not all it is, is it?" He accused. "You don't do anything unless you want something."

"Has it ever occured to you that maybe I'm doing you a favor?" He whined. "You're making a scene, in my bar-" 

Odo lowered his voice. "What do you want?" 

"I want you to stop making yourself miserable on purpose." 

"You believe that warrants sabotaging the entire station?" 

"What are you talking about?"

"The missing logs, the corrupted databanks, the cryptic messages on my personnel file - love letters." his voice was as patronizing and annoyed as ever. "Written in Ferengi."

Quark cackled at the idea of that.  
"That wasn't me." Odo could tell he was telling the truth this time.

Odo looked away from him. He should have known better.

"Hrmmph. Of course not."


	7. Ensign

Jadzia stared intensely into the panel in the wall. It emanated a strange, purple glow. The circuits crackled with electricity. 

"Do you know what this is, Major?"

"Do you?" 

"No idea... I'm trying to isolate it from the system."   
She grabbed a coil spanner out of the bag she had been carrying with her, and started to probe the affected area. The aura grew brighter, blindingly so, and shot itself like a phazer beam out of the computer, racing further down the jefferies tube. Although unlike a phazer beam, it was concentrated into one shape, a floating orb made of light. She jumped back in surprise.

Kira quickly looked down at her own tricorder. "That thing is registering as an energy-based life form." 

"It must have been feeding off of the low-level electricity put off by the power source in the computer. That could potentially explain how our files were corrupted." Jadzia watched as the violet glow disappeared around the corner.

"It's certainly a good theory." She hit her combadge, her voice giving a sense of urgency. "Kira to ops. I think we found our saboteur, but we're losing them." They both started down the corridor once again, scrambling on their hands and knees as quickly as they could to catch up with it.

Captain Sisko answered her from his station.  
"Good work, Major. What's he look like?" 

"Like a flying ball of plasma. It was hiding in the interface, probably leeching off of energy from the power coils." 

Sisko turned to Chief O'Brien who was at work on the control panel behind him. "Chief, I want you to scan for any energy distortions. Our culprit could be anywhere on the station."

"Yes, sir." The chief raised his brows as he entered commands on the computer, then he let out a heavy exhale.   
"No luck, Captain. Any trace of energy it's giving off is at too low a frequency to be detected by our sensors."

"We'll just have to keep searching on foot, then." The Captain then hit his own combadge.   
"Sisko to security. We've gained a new lead to what's causing the computer malfunctions. Report to ops immediately." 

On the other end of the line, Odo was startled out of his conversation with Quark. He tapped his communicator in response.   
"Acknowledged. I'll be right over." 

...

O'Brien looked up from his post once he finished running a few extra diagnostic scans.   
"You know, Captain? That thing out there, whatever it is, it isn't just attacking our files arbitrarily. It's specifically the personnel profiles. And it's got me thinking."

The turbolift doors hissed as Odo arrived behind them.

"What's your assessment, Chief?" Benjamin inquired.

"First of all, it's got to be sentient. It's written complete lines of text on its own, original ones that don't show up anywhere else in the databanks... I have reasons to believe it could be telepathic. Hear me out for a second." He scowled. 

Sisko nodded at him to continue. Odo stood a couple meters away, listening closely.

"Well... Take Ensign Jannson, for example. He works with me." Miles pulled up the man's file on screen. 

Ensign Tobias Jannson, 25, human, male.

There was information on his birthplace, Arizona, Earth; his time spent studying at Starfleet Academy, and his records as an officer. 

"He's been a great deal of help in engineering for the past few months. I've taken a liking to him. Due for a promotion, if you ask me." He cleared his throat, getting back on track.  
"But he's been depressed, and to cheer him up a bit last week, we got a drink or two at Quark's. Jannson ordered a black hole, you know, the strong, nasty stuff. And he told me about his brother, how he was his hero... Before he died in an ion storm. Of course, afterwards, he apologized and said he never talked about it while he was sober." 

Benjamin read back over Jannson's file again. It listed he had three living relatives in his immediate family: his mother Edina, his father Thomas, and...   
"Yet, the computer says his brother's name is Cory, that he's alive and well and still resides on Earth." 

"Exactly. And it's not just Jannson, either, Julian's file specifically omitted, uh, a worse time period in his life. It sounds strange, sure, but it's as if this entity consciously tried to change the records based off of people's darkest secrets, or their deepest desires, maybe." 

Odo almost melted again as he listened to that. He desperately hoped they wouldn't pull up his vandalized file again. "Or it could be merely a coincidence." 

Sisko clasped his hands together and held his pointer fingers in front of his lips in thought. "Let's just say as of right now, it's a definite possibility."


	8. Glass

A few hours had passed, and there was still no sign of the energy sphere. Jadzia returned to Quark's once again, to discuss how their plot was going. It was getting very late now; he was closing up for the night, and the promenade and his bar were some of the only areas left unsearched, she thought her visiting could prove useful.  
"Any news? You spoke with Odo again, yeah?" 

He was doing the last of his cleaning when she arrived, and the place was completely empty. All of his employees already went home by then.  
"I'm sorry commander, but we're closed." He joked halfheartedly. He looked as if he felt defeated, and when he felt defeated he would mope by himself, or go home to his mother to wallow in his own misery. 

"That bad, huh." 

"I'm not getting anywhere with him! I'll bet if he knew how much I did for him he wouldn't even care." 

"Don't beat yourself up, Quark. It took him three years to tell Kira how he felt. I had three hundred, and he's the single most repressed person I've ever met. Give him time." 

Quark groaned and turned to the shelf behind him, carefully selecting two glasses to pour himself and Jadzia some drinks. He remembered her order from every other night they spent commiserating, and poured her some brightly colored synthehol.  
"What about you and Kira? Getting any closer to her?" 

"We had a lovely, sensual evening and she went back to my quarters." 

"You're messing with me." 

"I am." She downed her drink in one go, again. "But she likes me! I don't have anything to worry about, and neither do you. It takes confidence, you have to be persistent. You can't go to great lengths to hide how you feel, then expect for them to realize it on their own, you know that." 

Quark took a sip of his drink. He let his lips linger on the edge of the glass, almost giving it a kiss, dwelling on it for a moment. Maybe he thought it would comfort him somehow. "He thought I was scheming against him. Can you believe that?"

"I mean, you are scheming against him. All the time."

"He thought I was pretending to be in love with him! Pretending." Quark whined. "After everything I've done for him, it's gotten me nowhere."

"The nerve of that guy." Jadzia nodded along, trying her hardest to agree with him rather than give him advice or arguing with him. 

"Can you believe that? You know, I really tried to help him, get him to realize she didn't love him, doesn't, and never really will, or she'd do something to show it to him." He gripped his glass tighter and stared down at it, looking past his reflection. "When they first got together, he seemed so... Happy, for once. And I wanted so badly to be happy for them too. But I'm miserable." 

"Stop it, Quark. Hating yourself won't do any good. You're acting exactly the same way he used to."

"I'm serious, Dax! He wouldn't recognize real love if it shot him through the chest. I've tried." 

"That's because you don't tell him what you just told me." 

"What, you think I should be pathetic, pour out my feelings to him, so he can tell me I'm disgusting?" 

Jadzia didn't respond.

"That's what I thought." 

Her combadge blipped.  
"Kira to Dax, please respond." 

"Go ahead, Major." 

"Meet me on the promenade, I found the saboteur. Where's Odo? He isn't answering my hails." 

Jadzia stood up. "Stay where you are, I'm on my way. I haven't seen him either." 

Quark's self pity replaced itself with worry and dread. He placed his glass on the bar and hurried after her.  
"Wait a second, I'm going with you!"

On their way out the door, neither of them realized when the glass Quark had just held in his hands morphed itself out of its solid state and into a puddle of ooze.


	9. Sacrifice

Kira stood in the middle of the promenade, on the lower level below the second floor. Hovering above her was the gaseous ball of violet light and plasma, the thing that had been living in the station's computers for the past week. It had grown significantly since the last time she encountered it, now several meters around. Flecks of its glowing substance fell off of it, like sparks from a fire, absorbing into the control panels in the walls. She wearily held out her phaser, aiming it at the aberration before her. 

Kira took a slow step forward, after another.

"If you can understand me, this is an order for you to back down." 

She flinched at a crackle of the lights above her breaking. Tiny glass shards rained on the promenade, and the entire hall started to darken, one by one, except for the purple light that dimly lit the promenade. 

She wondered why she was trying to reason with it. It wasn't humanoid, she didn't even know if it was sentient, but it was a life form of some sort, and she didn't want to destroy it. Bolts of something like electricity shot out from it in all directions.

"I can't just let you tear the station apart."

Kira steadied her phaser, set it to maximum stun, and pressed the button. Any humanoid would be incapacitated. The sphere's form destabilized, loudly emitting a horrible, pained drone. 

More jolts struck everything around her, and she turned her face away in an attempt to shield her face with her arms. 

In the distance down the way, Jadzia sprinted as quickly as she could to make it to Kira in time. Following shortly behind her was Quark, barely keeping up with her, since she was much more athletic than him. Unbeknownst to either of them in the chaos, a tarkalean hawk glided silently above, carefully staying out of their vision; he didn't want them to see him. 

"Major, get down!" 

Kira dropped to the floor, taking a quick look back at Jadzia.  
Jadzia shot at the sphere with her own phaser, narrowly landing the hit and avoiding Kira. It seemed damaged, but agitated by the stun, and it screeched as it launched an arc of plasma towards the Major. She cried out in pain, struggled to get to her knees, and fell back down with a thud.

Change of plans. Jadzia switched on her phaser's safety, and threw it to Quark.  
"What do you want me to do?!" He screeched at her, nearly dropping it in his panic to hold it properly. 

"Be a distraction! I have to get her out of here!" 

Quark ducked under another energy beam as he bolted sharply to the right. "Be a distraction," He mocked in a shrill little voice. Switching his phaser to a much higher setting, he fired a dozen shots that all managed to miss their target. "THIS is why-" He panted for air, "-I'm NOT in starfleet!" 

Jadzia stayed low to the ground, moving towards where Kira laid helplessly. Once she made it, she didn't waste any time to take the other woman in her arms and lift her up to carry her. Kira groaned, trying to stay awake.   
"I shouldn't have shot it-" she choked, her eyes fluttering closed. 

Jadzia put two fingers to her neck and felt for a pulse, thankfully she was still alive. She stayed on her knees, holding her, and rested her forehead against Kira's.   
"You'll be okay... I'll get you to the infirmary, promise." 

Quark had other problems. He tripped over a chunk of broken machinery, and landing on his knees at a bad angle. He had dropped his phaser and watched as it slid too far away to pick it back up, freezing up, and darting his eyes to the blinding light above him.   
"Is this it," he yelped. "I don't want to die like this!" 

The hawk from earlier answered his plea for help. He swooped down between Quark and the anomaly, and before Quark even got a good look at him, he knew exactly who it is. The only reason he faced this danger to begin with.

"Odo!"

The falcon then transformed himself into the tall security officer that stood rigidly before his cowering Ferengi. 

"Can't stay out of trouble for a second, can we?" 

He growled, but somehow didn't sound angry, not really. He crossed his arms in an X shape over his face to brace himself, but more importantly to him, shielding Quark from a massive blast of energy that wracked through the air towards him. Odo took the full extent of the hit, and the shock made Odo's form lose its shape, in the process, his unstable structure reflected the attack, and the arc of molten plasma careened back at its creator with twice as much force. 

The backfire of its own power overwhelmed the entity, and a bright flash of light, it simply vanished entirely in a hasty retreat. 

Odo failed to maintain his humanoid body, melting, he collapsed in front of Quark. Quark tried to catch the changeling, but as he was no longer solid, he slipped through his fingers like a handful of water. 

"Odo... What did you do..." He knew what he did, though; he saved his life. Again.

The puddle of slime wobbled and shrank himself into a small pile. Quark took Odo into his hands, and carefully tucked him into the pocket on the inside of his coat, keeping him safe close to his chest. If Odo was conscious - it was so hard to tell in this state - he would be able to feel Quark's heartbeat pounding in fear, worry, and something else that came from knowing Odo cared about him enough to go out of his way to protect him.

Jadzia shouted after him. "Quark, are you alright?" 

He started to his feet, wincing a little, but realized anything that he hurt was his own fault for being so careless, or at least that's what he thought, anyway. "Ow- I'm fine, but Odo-"

Jadzia hit her communicator.  
"Four to beam to infirmary." 

No response.

She tried again. "Doctor Bashir?" 

Julian spoke over the other end of the line.  
"I'm trying, Commander, but there's too much residual interference to get a transporter lock on you. You'll have to take the turbolifts instead." 

Jadzia pushed herself up to her knees, still carrying the unconscious Major in her arms, and hurriedly started to the turbolift shaft across the hall.   
"Come on, Quark, let's go."


	10. The Best Medicine

After about an hour, Julian walked out of the infirmary and into the waiting room where Jadzia sat, concerned and patient, as she knew the good doctor well and knew he would do everything he could to ensure their recovery.   
Quark, on the other hand, paced back and forth the entire time they were in there. Jadzia had asked him to sit down several times, which worked, for about 20 seconds before he got restless again. He bumped into the doctor when he opened the door. 

"Are they going to be alright, Julian?" Jadzia asked, before he had a chance to give any news on his own. 

"Kira is still shook up, but there was no lasting damage, nothing permanent. She needs some time to rest for her body to heal. I gave her something for the pain... She should be awake in a moment, if you'd like to visit her." 

"I would like that very much. Thank you, doctor." 

Quark straightened his coat. "What about Odo?" 

Julian frowned. "Well, we just don't know very much about changeling physiology. He's still in his liquid state, and there's practically nothing I know to do for him... My best guess is he's going through the regenerative process." 

That wasn't what Quark wanted to hear.   
"Can't I visit him?" 

"If you wish, but he won't do much conversing from the jar he's currently in." 

... 

Kira began to stir in her bed when she heard Jadzia walking closer.   
"Lieutenant..." She winced a little. "Am I glad to see you." 

Jadzia smiled tenderly down at her, kneeling at her bedside.   
"I can't tell you how relieved I am to see you."

"You could try." Kira laughed quietly, then groaned at the soreness in her sides. It was going to take a moment for the painkillers to take their full effect. 

Jadzia glanced down, then back up, into the Bajoran's eyes, a mischievous twinkle shining in her own. "Then I'm overjoyed." 

Kira relaxed at the sound of her voice.  
"Why is it that I feel so much more comfortable with you than anyone else in this side of the universe?" 

Jadzia raised an eyebrow. She managed to keep a silly, seductive tone in her voice.   
"Your boyfriend better watch his back or I'll steal you from him." 

Kira wheezed, forcing her laughter back so she didn't hurt herself.   
"Good thing he's got Quark all to himself, huh." 

Jadzia took one of Kira's hands in her own.   
"I'm telling you Nerys, I retained all my memories as a womanizer from Curzon. I have sixty years of practice." 

They could both hear the steady beep of Kira's pulse monitor growing faster, and it was all Jadzia's fault. 

"I'm serious, Dax! I really am at home with you. I could talk to you about anything and it feels like you really listen." Kira sighed. "Of course I love Odo, but..." But it wasn't the same, she always thought of him as a friend, even when it broke his heart, even when she tried not to, and in truth it wasn't easy for her either.  
"It's just easier to be myself around you." 

"Is that such a bad thing?" 

"...No, I don't think so." 

Jadzia held her hand tighter, and placed a gentle kiss on Kira's knuckles.   
"I'm happy to hear it."

Kira felt a warm flush spread all the way over her cheeks and the ridges of her nose.   
"Did Curzon tell you to do that, too?" 

"Maybe the Dax part of him did." 

"Or the Dax part of you."   
Kira studied her lips ever since they kissed her hand. They looked so soft, and felt even more so. 

"Maybe."   
Jadzia leaned in ever so slightly, waiting to see if Kira wanted the same thing, to close the distance between them, to say without words that their jokes and flirts were more than just that. And she waited.

Kira used her free hand to brush a loose strand of Jadzia's hair back into place, it had gotten messy during the attack earlier. Kira's thumb lingered over Dax's trill spots, and she did tiny circles to trace around them.   
"Is it wrong of me to do this?"

Jadzia tilted her head, ever so slightly, closer so slowly that it almost hurt.  
"That's up to you." 

And Kira answered her own question. She trailed her hand from Jadzia's cheek to hold the back of her head, feeling her fluffy hair between her fingers, and pulling her the rest of the way in to finally press their lips together. Jadzia had kissed more women than she could count, and Kira had... Relations with her other self in the mirror universe, but this was exciting - thrilling - new for both of them. She could feel the corners of Jadzia's smiling lips every time she took them into her own. And she felt wonderful. 

... 

In Odo's room in the infirmary, Quark watched after a beaker full of ooze, Odo in his natural state. Quark had never seen him go through the regenerative process before, almost no one had. It was intimate to him, and private, and he'd never met a more private man than Odo. It was unsettling, not knowing if he was okay or not.

Quark reached out and touched the outside of the glass, and just let his hand stay there.   
"You'd better make it, Odo..."   
His voice broke in the middle. He couldn't stand to see anything happen to the Constable, his enemy, the one he loved so much that he hated it.

He felt a strange sensation pulling at him. It was as if he was being called to, almost. Or, more like on a starship when a communications channel was opened, and he had the choice to accept it. He chose to open himself and let it go through. 

All of a sudden, it felt like Quark was back in his bar, and Odo was standing there with him. He could hear the ambient voices of patrons, but everything seemed vague, foggy and dreamlike. He stared up at Odo for a time, trying to make sense of what had just happened.   
"Am I dead? Is this the divine treasury?" He panicked. "Wait. You're here. Don't tell me it's the vault of eternal destitution-" 

Odo scoffed, and shook his head. His hollow mouth turned upwards in a smile.  
"You aren't dead, Quark. I let you link with me."   
Quark remembered hearing Odo mention it before, it was something changelings could do, they become one with one another. What he didn't tell Quark, was it was possible with humanoids, and he'd done it before: once in intimacy with a woman he just met. 

He reached to lightly hold the Ferengi's shoulders, and for some reason, all of his worries faded away.

Quark gaped at him again. "Oh."   
That's all he could say, and that's all he needed, because words wouldn't have done him justice anyways. 

Odo pulled him close, and wrapped his arms around him, just holding him, and in that moment everything they left unspoken was shared through their link. Every uncertainty felt so far away; He finally knew how much he loved him. Quark held onto him tightly, feeling so content and deeply loved, although in the link it was impossible to tell where his thoughts ended and Odo's began. 

When they opened their eyes again, they had returned to the real world, in the infirmary, still in each other's arms. Odo was in his humanoid form again. He realized the act of linking must be what healed him, since that had saved him before, except this time it wasn't with another changeling. It was Quark, his worst enemy, and for the first time he could remember, everything made sense.


End file.
